Determining Whether a Procedure Can Be Done Using DSCC

Most procedures in this guide can be performed using either the command
line or DSCC. The procedures in this guide show how to use the command
line to accomplish a particular task. In most cases DSCC can be used
to perform the same task. If DSCC can be used for a particular task,
a statement to that effect appears at the beginning of the procedure.

The DSCC online help provides detailed instructions on how
to use DSCC to perform the procedures in this guide.

Cases Where Using DSCC Is Better

DSCC enables you to perform some operations and tasks more
easily than you can perform them from the command line, as explained in the
following sections. In general, any command that must be applied to several
servers is best performed using DSCC.

Viewing Servers and Suffix Replication Status

DSCC displays tables that show all server instances that have
been registered in DSCC, all suffixes that have been configured,
and the status of each.

The servers table is on the Directory Servers tab and shows the operational
status of the server. For a complete list of possible server states, see the Directory Server online
help.

The suffixes table is on the Suffixes tab and shows replication status
information, such as the number of entries and the number and age of any missing
changes. For more information about the information displayed in this table,
see the Directory Server online help.

Managing Groups of Servers

Server groups assist you in monitoring and configuring servers. You
can create groups and assign servers to the groups. For example, you can group
servers by geographical location, or by function. If you have a large number
of servers, you can filter the servers shown on the Directory Servers tab
so that only the servers in the group are shown. You can also copy the server
configuration (for example index or cache settings) of one server to all other
servers in a group. For instructions on how to set up and use a server group,
see the Directory Server online help.

Copying Configuration Settings

DSCC enables you to copy the configuration settings of an existing
server, suffix, or replication agreement to one or more other servers, suffixes,
or replication agreements. For information about how to perform each of these
tasks, see the Directory Server online help.

Configuring Replication

With DSCC, you can set up a replication topology quickly and
easily. Simply create the server instances, then use the steps provided by DSCC to
designate the role of each server. DSCC automatically creates the
replication agreements for you. For more information about how to configure
replication using DSCC, see the Directory Server online help.

Directory Server Command-Line Tools

Most tasks you perform on DSCC can be performed using
command-line tools. These tools enable you to manage Directory Server directly
from the command line, and to manage your server by using scripts.

The main directory server commands are dsadm, dsconf, and dsutil. You can use these commands to perform
backups, export to LDIF, manage certificates, manage the administration of
users or roles, and so on. For information about these commands, see the dsadm(1M), dsconf(1M), and dsutil(1M) man pages.

The dsconf, dsmig, dsccmon,
and dsutil are LDAP based commands so you must specify
the user bind DN and password for these commands to authenticate. While the dpadm and dsadm commands operate on the instance
files.

This section contains the following information about Directory Server command-line
tools:

Setting Environment Variables for dsconf

The dsconf command requires some options that
you can preset by using environment variables. If you do not specify an option
when using the command, or do not set the environment variable, the default
setting is used. You can configure environment variables for the following
options:

Note that the properties are grouped by targeted objects, such as suffixes
(SUF) and server (SER). The rw keyword indicates that the
property is readable and writable. The M keyword indicates
that the property is multivalued.

To see the server attribute, use verbose mode. For example,
on a UNIX system, type: